Esther McVey will cut overseas aid to fund police and schools

The ex-Work and Pensions Secretary – who is one of 11 candidates in the race to succeed Theresa May – will launch her Blue Collar Conservatism campaign in a pub in Bingley where her fiancé, Philip Davies, is the outspoken MP.

How Tories will win back trust of working class people under my leadership – Esther McVey

Writing exclusively in The Yorkshire Post, the leading Brexit supporter says that Britain would leave the European Union on October 31 under her premiership. “It is time for the Conservative Party to wake up, listen to voters and embrace Brexit as a magnificent opportunity, not as a problem to be managed, mitigated or ultimately reversed,” she says. “If the EU wants to come back and make a better offer, I will listen; otherwise we leave with no deal.”

But Ms McVey, who quit the Cabinet because she could not support the EU Withdrawal Agreeement, says Mrs May’s successor must face up to the concerns of ordinary people more seriously. “By returning international aid to the levels we inherited from Labour in 2010, we can free up about £7bn,” she explains.

“This would still mean we are spending high levels on our international commitments and I, like a lot of MPs, are proud of the work the UK does to support the world’s poorest.

“We can do both – returning to 2010 levels would allow us to move £4bn into schools and £3bn to policing...it will allow police forces to deliver the kind of service they so desperately want to.”